Highest-risk communities
The metro Detroit basement risk leaderboard
| Community | BRI | Pre-1960 homes | Median value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pleasant Ridge | 94 | 94% | $393,900 |
| 2 | Grosse Pointe | 88 | 88% | $379,400 |
| 3 | Grosse Pointe Park | 88 | 88% | $445,100 |
| 4 | Huntington Woods | 87 | 87% | $457,600 |
| 5 | Grosse Pointe Farms | 86 | 86% | $409,200 |
| 6 | Hamtramck | 80 | 80% | $103,100 |
| 7 | Berkley | 79 | 79% | $275,100 |
| 8 | Ferndale | 78 | 78% | $218,000 |
| 9 | Detroit | 78 | 78% | $66,700 |
| 10 | Eastpointe | 77 | 77% | $115,100 |
| 11 | Allen Park | 77 | 77% | $165,600 |
| 12 | Redford Twp | 77 | 77% | $130,900 |
| 13 | Wyandotte | 76 | 76% | $147,900 |
| 14 | Grosse Pointe Woods | 75 | 75% | $309,700 |
Ranked by the Basement Risk Index. Older, higher-value inner-ring communities top the list: the same brick homes that flooded across metro Detroit in the June 2021 storms.
About the Basement Risk Index™
The Basement Risk Index (BRI) is a proprietary 0–100 score developed and maintained by Basement Risk Check. It weighs each neighborhood’s housing vintage and the region’s soil and drainage characteristics against documented metro Detroit flood history, scored across 1,100 census neighborhoods and 96 communities. Higher scores reflect greater structural exposure to basement water intrusion. Underlying inputs include federal housing records and municipal flood data; index weightings are proprietary.
Why housing age drives basement flooding
Homes built before the 1960s were never built to stay dry
Modern basements have a sump pump, exterior weeping tile, and often a backwater valve. None of that was standard before the 1960s. Across metro Detroit, the older the housing stock, the more homes are fighting water with original clay drain tiles that have been silently failing for decades, on the heavy clay soil that blankets the region. That is why the inner-ring communities, from Pleasant Ridge and Huntington Woods to the Grosse Pointes, carry the highest Index scores, and why they were hit hardest in the 2021 storms.
Why this exists
In June 2021, storms put tens of thousands of metro Detroit basements underwater in a weekend and brought a federal disaster declaration to Wayne County. Most homeowners never knew their street had a history. We are a southeast Michigan team that built the Index so you can see your community’s risk before the next storm, not after.